Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

2 convicted in separate Rapides trials to be sentenced

Here are mugshots received from Central Louisiana law enforcement agencies for the week of June 11, 2018. A criminal charge is a formal accusation that someone has committed a crime. All those pictured are innocent until proven guilty. To view those held in Rapides Parish detention facilities, go to www.rpso.org/inmates/all.

Two men — one who robbed a vendor and later shot at him and a co-worker and the other who pistol whipped a woman — were convicted in separate trials last week in Rapides Parish courts.

Both Marcus Dewayne Piper, 25, and Antonio Merquis Harris, 23, will be sentenced on June 25 in the 9th Judicial District Court.

Piper was one of three people charged in what initially was reported as a shooting on Sept. 16, 2016. The victim actually was beaten on her head with a pistol before someone fired the gun. Two assailants, Piper and Charles Edward Hampton Jr., fled in a vehicle driven by Britney Nicole Watkins.

Both Piper and Hampton were charged with attempted second-degree murder and firearm possession by a felon charges. Hampton still awaits trial.

Watkins pleaded guilty in March 2017 to being an accessory after the fact. Her five-year prison sentence was suspended, and she was placed on probation.

According to the Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office, the victim was beaten "in retaliation for conflict between Piper and the victim’s boyfriend." Although Piper's attorney, Allen Smith III, tried to persuade jurors it was a case of mistaken identity, the victim testified that she knew it was Piper because she'd known him since he was a baby, reads a release.

Piper, who just pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor simple battery charge last month, was found guilty Friday (June 8) of the firearm possession charge and a lesser charge of aggravated battery. He will be sentenced by Judge Mary Lauve Doggett.

Harris will be sentenced by ad hoc Judge Harry Randow after a jury took about four hours to convict him Friday on two counts of attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon, illegal possession of a stolen firearm and intimidating a witness.

The incident began when a Frito-Lay vendor who was making a delivery early on July 6, 2015, to the Save More convenience store in the 4400 block of Lee Street was robbed at gunpoint.

About two hours later, the vendor and a co-worker rode through the area in an attempt to recover some of the stolen items, including a wallet and cellphone. Shots were fired, which hit their vehicle. Police descended on the area and captured three suspects, including Harris.

Harris was connected by the Alexandria Police Department to both incidents, and jurors agreed.

The two other suspects — Deltric Anthony Carpenter and Demoreo Nifine Hall — later were charged with two counts of being an accessory after the fact. Their cases remain active.

In other cases:

► Frank James Sanders Jr., 26, pleaded guilty to purse snatching on Tuesday (June 11). Charges of criminal conspiracy, simple criminal damage to property between $500 and $50,000, two counts of armed robbery and two counts of second-degree battery were dropped.